The books students are told to read
On 3 February 2016, The Washington Post ran an interesting little piece on an online initiative in the US called The Open Syllabus Project. The Open Syllabus Project (OSP) is essentially a big data...
View ArticleDrawing Tintin on an iPad Pro
I chanced upon this incredible time-lapse video by Texas-based designer, Phil Coffman (@philcoffman), of his drawing of a Tintin scene on an iPad Pro using Apple Pencil. Take a look for yourself...
View ArticleSurvey into UK Legal Research (an update)
Late last week, I launched a survey to understand at a very high-level the sorts of methodologies lawyers employ in their legal research. To date, 102 responses have been collected. Given that this...
View ArticleTypeform
I’m turning into a bit of geek when it comes to new apps and online tools and love it when I find something new that works well and renders beautiful results. One such recent find is an online tool...
View ArticleLegal Research in the UK
Earlier on today, I put up a quick post calling for assistance in some research I’m undertaking to better understand the ways in which practising lawyers go about researching issues of law in 2016....
View ArticleUnderstanding case preparation research routes
The legal information market in the UK is a mish-mash of free and very expensive research platforms. Some of them online, others are in print. In the online market, at one end of the spectrum, we have...
View ArticleDefending Inner Temple Library
Jack of Kent has just posted an excellent blog post in defence of Inner Temple Library against an incredibly misconceived plan to carve up a significant portion of the Library (58% at current...
View ArticleThe Justice [] Gap
I recently wrote a post for The Justice Gap blog about some of the issues raised by the litigant in person-phenomenon and you can read it here.
View Article“Rotting Links”– Permanence in Legal Scholarship in the Digital Age
Just a quick note on an essay I read today by Jonathan Zittrain, Kendra Albert and Lawrence Less in the Harvard Law Review which I found pretty interesting and may be of interest to legal information...
View ArticleAppeals against conviction on grounds of incompetent representation: R v...
On 20 March 2014, the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) dismissed an application by the defendant for permission to appeal against his conviction of two counts of sexual touching of a girl under 13...
View ArticleNo obligation to hold public inquiry into Malayan civilian deaths in 1948:...
The Court of Appeal in Keyu v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs [2014] EWCA Civ 312; [2014] WLR (D) 138 dismissed an application by the claimants for a public inquiry or similar...
View ArticleNew Feature on Carrefax: ICLR Case Summaries Feed
I’ve just added a new and nifty little feature to this blog: on the right-hand navigation pane, just beneath the “Recent Transmissions” list, you will now see a self-updating feed of free case...
View ArticleAre decisions of the Crown Court binding?
A very interesting question was raised by @greg_callus on Twitter this morning: are the decisions of the Crown Court binding on itself and the magistrates’ court? The question arose from Sweeney J’s...
View ArticleThe Curious Case of the Judgment Enhancers
On 6 February 2013, I gave a seminar at the offices of Lewis Silkin LLP entitled “The Curious Case of the Judgment Enhancers”. This is a transcript of the seminar I delivered, for those who are...
View ArticleGuest Post: Judges on strike – could it happen here?
Judges in Egypt have threatened to go on strike in protest against a decree, issued by new president Mohammed Mursi, the terms of which place the president above any law and declare that his decisions...
View ArticleConceptualising Confrontation | Part 7 | Concluding Notes
This is the final part of a series of blog posts I’ve been putting out, under the rubric of ‘Conceptualising Confrontation’, since the spring of 2011. To read the other parts in the series, go to the...
View ArticleConceptualising Confrontation | Part 6 | Anonymous Witness Evidence in...
In English law, the reception of anonymous witness evidence is governed by the statutory regime contained in Part III of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 (CJA 2009) which placed the temporary powers...
View ArticleThe Justice [] Gap
I recently wrote a post for The Justice Gap blog about some of the issues raised by the litigant in person-phenomenon and you can read it here.
View ArticleTo Prosecute or Not to Prosecute – That is the Question
I have perceived, in recent months, an increase in the amount of airtime and column inches devoted to the way in which the Crown Prosecution Service (the CPS) arrives at a decision as to whether or not...
View ArticleThe Vague and Elusive Defence of Duress
When I was a law student studying criminal law, one concept that frequently eluded me was the defence of duress by threats. In my own rough and inelegant way, I learnt that the defence of duress by...
View Article